While much has been written about the looming death of brick-and-mortar retail at the hands of Amazon and e-commerce, Birmingham retailers and experts say the demise has been greatly exaggerated.

Make no mistake, local retailers are definitely feeling the effects of Amazon – as the retail giant uses incentives to accelerate its growth around the nation – but they also believe that, by evolving customer experiences and providing stellar services, they can find long-term success.

Lacy Beasley, president and chief operating officer with Birmingham’s Retail Strategies, said despite all the buzz around online commerce, it actually makes up less than 9 percent of retail sales nationwide.

“I think a lot of people would assume it’s much higher given all the news we’ve heard about retailers closing,” she said. “But 48 percent of closures announced this year are really just 16 different retailers. These are brands that didn’t remain current and didn’t incorporate a very strong online presence. You need both – called omnichanneling. It’s really combining both and adapting to technology and to the millennials.”

One example of adapting to both is Amazon getting its feet wet in the brick-and-mortar business by purchasing Whole Foods. Another example is Hibbett Sports launching an e-commerce site this year. Jeff Rosenthal, CEO and president of Hibbett Sports, said the fact the company has both an online and a storefront presence allow each entity to feed off one another for greater sales.

Rosenthal said while Amazon can be a threat to some businesses due to online availability, quick delivery and more, Hibbett focuses on offering premium merchandise and customer service to seal the deal with customers.

“Even though they sell Nike, they are selling more commodity and lower price points,” he said. “It will have an impact on us but not as much. As they want a physical presence, we think our physical presence helps impact our e-commerce presence. I think for someone like us, it’s still about our customer connection and how we do customer service both in stores and online.”

Rosenthal added having a personal touch is one reason why people go to a store – for that one-on-one experience and assistance.

Beasley said if you look at what stores are still operating in a traditional capacity, a bulk of them are service oriented like hair cut shops, restaurants and more. In fact, she said restaurants are now anchors at malls instead of the traditional department store.

“About 40 percent of retail expansion in brick and mortar is restaurants,” Beasley said. “A restaurant now can be a new anchor for retail or downtown revitalization.”

While brick and mortar still is the majority of retail transactions, the online segment is growing, and Beasley said Amazon makes up the lion’s share of the growth. With the company buying Whole Foods, she looks for them to expand that segment also.

“People look around and want a villain of that and tend to point to e-commerce and Amazon as the villain,” she said. “Amazon is just forcing change and forcing brands to adapt to technology, millennials, and adapt to online changes that impact convenience. Amazon has provided convenience and it’s putting pressure on our traditional brick and mortar businesses. We’re seeing new, very innovative concepts popping up.”

Bryan Holt, principal at Southpace Properties, said Amazon and e-commerce are forcing brick-and-mortar retailers to evolve their operations.

These days, he said, customers don't simply want a transaction-based trip to a retailer. Instead, they are looking for experience and entertainment – even at a grocery store.